I started a study of 1 Samuel this past weekend with my Men’s Group. We went over 1 Samuel 1 and dissected verse by verse. It was an informative couple of hours of reflection on Hannah’s predicament and her faith. It is interesting to think that God always seems to use the most unequipped people to change the earth or the direction of His church. Hannah was to give birth to Samuel the last judge of Israel and the one to anoint Saul the first king of Israel, but there was one issue, she was barren. Hannah was praying on the steps of the template for a son; which she swore to give to service of God.

There is much more in this story, but I repeated this to account for an observation made by a member of the group. He had commented on the great faith these people had in the Old Testament and how most of these great figures of faith were nobodies of their days. These people were rarely were witnessed to the great miracles and lived in seclusion only to visit the temple for special occasions. He then expressed his guilt and concern over our lack of faith, since we have all these examples of God providing for others and most importantly we now have Christ. I think he has a great point, why do we have so little faith?

I believe this lack of faith is due to our inability to rely on anyone but ourselves and our conceit. A.W. Tozer penned that he believed our current condition as a result of our loss of the majesty of God and dependence upon ourselves. “With our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness and divine Presence. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence. Modern Christianity is simply not producing the kind of Christian who can appreciate or experience the life in the Spirit. Be still, and know that I am God, means next to nothing to the self-confident, bustling worshiper…” (A.W. Tozer - 1961)

So, what do you think?